Berks County housing development may have dry fire hydrants due to unpaid bills

WASHINGTON TWP. — Residents of the Meadwbrook housing development off Old Route 100 are hoping to get answers tonight at a special meeting called to figure out how to ensure water comes out of fire hydrants near their homes.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Washington Township Building on Barto Road.

It is being held to discuss the threat of fire hydrants no longer being supplied with water and the circumstances which brought the issue to this point.

On Jan. 30, residents of the unfinished development project received a letter from Superior Water Co. alerting them to the fact that bills for having water available for hydrants had not been paid and the company may discontinue the service.

Jim and Adele Oestreich have raised five children while living in Lower Pottsgrove and Upper Pottsgrove and are now finally owners of their first house.

They have already clashed in court with the developer, Barto Mall Inc., once of several companies owned by developer Richard Mingey, over problems in their new home, but say the spectre of inadequate fire protection demands immediate attention.

“This is our community and our neighbors are raising children here, just like we did, and its not right that they might not be safe,” said Adele Oestreich.

Her husband said if he could get just one question answered at tonight’s meeting, it would be “who’s ultimately responsible?”

He may have set his sights a little high.

Louise Knight, the CEO of Superior Water Co., said this is not the first time arrangements with one of Mingey’s companies have become tangled.

Her company has been in litigation with one of his over issues at this site for more than four years she said.

“Nothing is ever simple with him,” said Knight.

Attempts to reach Mingey Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Knight said her company did not begin to bill for the fire protection service until a water storage tank built for that purpose was completed.

One bill was paid by Mingey and then he informed Knight through an e-mail that the payment for that service was the responsibility of the homeowner’s association.

“And I told him, but Richard, you are the president of the homeowner’s association,” Knight recalled.

“I’d like to know how that isn’t a conflict of interest,” said Jim Oestreich.

“We don’t even know who our homeowners association is. We never have a meeting, we don’t have any paperwork,” said Oestreich, who said the residents of Meadowbrook nevertheless pay dues of $300 per year to belong to the association.

Knight said with a sigh that she now has information indicating there may be two homeowners association.

In no other place where her company does business, is the hydrant bill paid this way.

“In New Hanover, for example, the hydrant bill is paid by the municipalities and if its a private hydrant, like at Wawa, the property owner pays,” Knight said.

But in Meadowbrook, the company has not received any payment since July.

“Obviously, this cannot continue,” Knight wrote in the letter to residents.

She said the township has been very cooperative in trying help resolve the problem, including agreeing to host tonight’s meeting.